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Battle Log Commentary & You

Posted October 13th, 2008 at 1:24 AM by BeachBoy
Updated November 7th, 2008 at 4:40 AM by BeachBoy

Battle Log Commentary & You

One of my main contributions to this forum, the Battle Logs Sub-forum, has recently developed a laziness for commentary, or maybe doesn't find it necessary. And I made this "rant" to Vance on the PokéCommunity Shoddy Server, with few people there. Which, really, wasn't fair at all. I was basically fueling my frustration about it onto him, my apologies for that, Vance.

Anyway, it has been overall developing into multiple battle logs with a severe lack of commentary. Many of which I reject and tell the member to add more while others I've approved shamelessly due to so much effort into the other aspects of the battle log. I wanted to use this blog entry to raise awareness how important the commentary really is, or why you shouldn't underestimate it, or barely sum it up after twelve turns. Anything I can do to improve the battle logs, is what I'm all for.

In one of the battle logs I approved with a lack of commentary, sims796 (who I respect) said
Quote:
Originally Posted by sims796
Y'know what I like about this log? No commentary EVERY MOVE. I hate that. You don't have to put your two cents when nothing worthwhile pops up. Happens far too often, glad you left something for us readers to figure out. We aren't noobs, ya don't need to spell out every turn. That was a huge plus.
Basically, it seemed to cause a shift. And for me, the guy who approves all these puppies, an unwanted one. And by no means am I pinning this all on you sims, no way, that'd be going too far. This entry is to all the log makers, rather. Getting the importance of detailed commentary and the mindset "less log, more commentary."

In a battle, you enter with a six Pocket Monster team,
your knowledge of the game, and some concoction of a strategy in an effort to win. With numerous variables that change the course to execute it. When you encounter a thrilling and fantastic battle that's worth a person's time to sit down and enjoy your wild experience, what do you want to accomplish? A battle log isn't supposed to do the talking. A wall of text isn't supposed to be the leader in a story. A battle log is not something you slap some pretty format to and let the reader figure things out. It's a story, and the battler (or both participants) should be the one talking. Imagine it this way, say you're at camp and you encounter a bear, you barely escape a near death experience! You soon find a cave for the night and record what happened. When you get back to the camp sight, are you going to A) hand the paper around with a couple of mumblings like "Oh, that was a huge branch" (battle logger translation: Even more hax against me!) or are you B) sit down and explain your breathtaking experience?

Here's the thing that erks me. In a battle log, as I said earlier, you have a team with a strategy. Your reader does not know how you build your team, how you gameplan during matches, how you react compared to others, how you think, and what your overall knowledge is of the game.

Some points and selections in a battle, like sims pointed out, are completely self-explanatory. You know what you can do here, rather than be all goo goo ga ga "I thunderbolted the Gyarados for that 4x weakness. :F"? Focus the reader's attention to what you're thinking about the overall match. In a battle, you can't win without some sort of thought process. If you're playing an entire match on complete instinct you either A) learned that instinct from something or somewhere, explain it or B) what the hell are you thinking presenting this.

In a battle log, you should not let this bland, boring, string of mini-turns tell the reader what's going on. You are the person who should be telling the story with commentary. Focusing on commentary rather than log is an enormous plus.

Also, readers, if you're too lazy (Because that's really what it is, isn't it?) to read the commentary, you have no right to criticize or critique someone's battle log. Just getting that out there, because someone put in the time & effort to entertain you and you skip arguably the areas of most effort? If you don't have the time, read all of it until a certain point instead of jamming it all in and skim. You do not skim battle logs readers. :|

Q & A

Common questions and answers. If you have any, comment and I'll add it here.

  • I have a turn where the exact thing happened before, why should I comment?
This is the time where you explain the thinking ahead, how your strategy is unfolding or what you want to accomplish, etc. How are you going to react if a critical hit were to possibly occur? What Pocket Monsters you have & haven't seen? Which of them scares you the most? Do you have an answer for it? What do you plan to do? You see, there's so much you can do to explain to the reader exactly what's going on and putting them in your shoes.
  • Do I have to comment on every single turn?
That's your call. In my opinion, in a fantastic battle, there's enough thought and rush in your head to comment about pretty much to have that many details. Although, you don't *have* to comment every turn, so no. But if you're skipping eight turns and summing it up with a sentence, you're not presenting an entertaining battle log, you're "presenting" a colorful & bland wall of text. :|
  • What should I do if I lack commentary and can't think of anything to put?
By all means, send it to someone for a personal one-on-one review. (I'm always available to review a battle log) But you know what you could do? Give the battle log to your opponent, and let him write his version of the story. Getting the perspective from the kid AND the bear is awesome. I love well written duel commentary battle logs, my favorites, in fact.
  • What if I'm tired, and have the surge to finish, can't I just cut if down and press submit?
This happens way too much! A member gets exhausted after writing 30,000+ characters and near the middle to end, halftimes it. Before the Battle Logs Sub-forum was established, I did all my battle logs 24/7 with 18 cups of coffee and worked hard to finish all in once. One day I made a thread here on PC if there were any drafts (because my trade center was as tiring as a battle log) and Andy (Arcanine) gave me some advice every battle log author should know. You can Private Message yourself, if you ever get a bit tired, stop and send yourself the battle log, saving it for later when you're back to 100% HP. That way, you can have a fresh start to that middle to end, and make it much much better.

Moral of this entire entry

If I haven't said it or drilled this overall point into your head enough.

"Less log, more commentary." I hope I got that point across. You are supposed to give the insight into your mindset, strategy, process, etc. Sounds like too much work, or too lazy to read this entry? Stop complaining and put in the effort, you can save it in your PMs if you get tired or need a break.

Thanks for reading,
BeachBoy

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Comments

  1. Old Comment
    Aurafire's Avatar
    Cool stuff Beachboy. I was actually thinking about making a battle log, and I will most certainly try to follow those guidelines ^_^
    Posted October 13th, 2008 at 7:22 AM by Aurafire Aurafire is offline
  2. Old Comment
    BeachBoy's Avatar
    Thanks, Aurafire.

    Sounds good to me, first battle logs are fun. (Obligatory "it was my first" if you mess up on anything, so have fun with it.) Read my tips stickie and or send it to me via PM, I'll help ya out. And check back here for commentary clarification if you're ever wondering about that again in the future. XD;
    Posted October 13th, 2008 at 8:06 AM by BeachBoy BeachBoy is offline